Coast Cuisine - October 2015 - The Shoofly Magazine

Coast Cuisine - October 2015

10/1/2015

West End Returns!

Waveland's go-to place for seafood opens with everyone's favorite's still on the menu – and a few new tasty delights, including a raw bar!
- story by Lisa Monti, photos Ellis Anderson

West End Restaurant
635 Highway 90
Waveland, MS 39576
228.466.5225

Free Cleaver Subscription!

Fans returning to Waveland’s West End Restaurant, which was closed for a short hiatus, are finding some changes to the dining room and the menu. The raw bar, featuring a small pirogue, is where diners can choose from raw oysters, ceviche, marinated crab claws and shrimp cocktail. Owners Kelyn and Mark Breland plan to add a variety of oysters from Alabama and other states soon. They’re also planning to offer an early-bird special soon.

On a recent Tuesday, diners on lunch break filled tables in the front dining room, a gathering of friends met on the sunny side courtyard and a hard working group from the Cleaver met for our casual monthly lunch in the middle dining room. Its chalkboard walls are decorated with quotes by foodies and about eating. It fits right in with the Brelands’ motto for West End: Small-town ease, Big Easy Flavor.

Coast Cuisine
is sponsored by

Click here and scroll down to read archived Coast Cuisine
columns

The couple opened West End in the summer of 2008, using the experience they had gained with Daddy-O’s, their popular breakfast and lunch diner well known for its signature doughnuts. West End came about when the Brelands set out to try a new type of restaurant post-Katrina.

Meals at West End start with a small loaf of French bread delivered to the table in a paper bag. It's a nice way to get a meal under way and the bread at West End is warm, light and crispy.

I didn’t do the math but our table seemed split between the menu classics and the daily specials. I had a cup of rich gumbo loaded with seafood along with half a fried shrimp poboy on Leidenheimer bread. Pardon the crumbs. Enough said.

Up and down the table, all the choices appeared appetizing, from the generous and juicy West End burger covered with melted Swiss to the show-stopping avocado crab salad and the fried green tomato poboy. An appetizer of fried green tomatoes topped with crabmeat and accompanied by a small serving of a special sauce stood up well to the full-sized entrees.

West End is partial to seafood but if you lean more toward pasta, steaks, and veal dishes you can find those, too.

West End, located at 635 U.S. Route 90, is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.